{"id":611700,"date":"2026-04-18T04:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/611700\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T04:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:50:11","slug":"dvalishvili-ufc-doctors-told-me-i-could-pull-out-before-petr-yan-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/611700\/","title":{"rendered":"Dvalishvili: UFC doctors \u2018told me I could pull out\u2019 before Petr Yan loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Merab Dvalishvili was injured when Petr Yan beat him in dominant fashion<\/a> during their UFC 323 fight from December 2025.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to Dvalishvili himself, who did his best to avoid spilling any specifics \u2026 but did eventually admit he fought hurt during an interview with Shakiel Mahjouri.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told UFC if they need me, I was there,\u201d Dvalishvili said of the fight. \u201cAnd I was willing to fight four times in the year, and I was gonna take a fight against the the best, most deserving guy. I knew that it was a risk, but I like to take challenges. I like to take a risk. That\u2019s who I am. That\u2019s what got me here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the camp there were things, you know,\u201d he continued. \u201cLike some UFC doctors told me that I can pull out, but that\u2019s not who I am. You know? I don\u2019t wanna to make an excuse. I like to deal with challenges. And I had the same, same thing or worse situation before some fights, and I did still make it through and still win those fights. But this time, I wasn\u2019t able to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dvalishvili clearly loved being champion, but somehow he took losing the belt in stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I lost, I was fine. I just moved on,\u201d Merab said. \u201cThe most important [thing], UFC told me that I was gonna get a rematch against the new champion. So I\u2019m just very, very relaxed now. I was ready to come back in May because I knew our fight was not gonna happen until June. But then Petr did surgery, now everything is relaxed. Everything is chill, chill now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just hoping right after June, like, July,\u201d he said. \u201cBut whenever UFC needs us because Petr already said he\u2019s ready for June, so that means he\u2019s ready in July and August.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Dvalishvili will keep himself occupied by wrestling Henry Cejudo at Real American Freestyle 08<\/a> in Philadelphia this Saturday April 18th.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to be busy,\u201d he said of RAF08. \u201cAnd wrestling is pretty much, like, my training session. Like, it\u2019s gonna be just fun \u2026 I\u2019m gonna win this match-up, and then I will focus for Dvalishvili: UFC doctors \u2018told me I could pull out\u2019 before Petr Yan loss fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Merab Dvalishvili was injured when Petr Yan beat him in dominant fashion during their UFC 323 fight from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,66312,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-611700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-323","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}